Tag Archives: business

June 14, 2010 · 10:09 am

The World Cup and Your Style

Wembley Stadium, London England

I love the World Cup.  Besides being a month-long celebration of the world’s most popular sport, it’s always great to watch any sport being contested at the highest levels (as an aside, this is also my favorite sports week since the U.S. Open happens on one of my favorite golf courses but more about that later in the week).

What’s really intriguing, especially for the millions of Americans who don’t watch soccer on a regular basis, is how you can really tell the different teams by their styles.  In fact, if there is anything really noticeable about the US team, aside from how good we’ve become, it is that I don’t think we have a real distinctive style which, in itself is our style.  In a way, that totally makes sense.  After all, we are a nation of immigrants playing a game invented elsewhere and we’re amalgamating the styles from all those nations.  But there are some business lessons here as well. Continue reading →

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June 11, 2010 · 11:32 am

10 Trends To Watch

As I wrote yesterday, I was fortunate to have been invited to the BMO Capital Markets Advertising and Marketing Services Conference. It’s run by a really smart guy named Dan Salmon, BMO Capital Markets’ Marketing & Advertising equity research analyst.  He was the event host which included a full-day agenda of presentations, panels and fireside chats.  In Dan’s words:  “The conference focused on the changing trends in innovation, technology and consumer behavior and their impact on the marketing and advertising industries.”

I came away from the day with a notebook full of thoughts I want to discuss with you but for today, let me tell you about Dan’s eye-opening presentation that began our day and set everything into context.  He identified 10 Trends to Watch and I think you’ll find them of interest.  They are:

  • The integration of technology into other industries
  • The unprecedented explosion of data
  • The need to coordinate connections
  • Transactional marketing
  • The fact that addressable TV is almost here
  • The continued rise of in-store marketing
  • Reputation management
  • The emergence of the digital marketing hub
  • New privacy laws
  • Brazil

Over the next little bit I want to explore many of these with you since they will affect almost anyone in business over the next year or so.  What amazed me (as usual) was how much is going on in marketing that is having an enormous effect on us all while remaining pretty below the radar, particularly with respect to the explosion of data and the push into local digital advertising by a lot of service firms.  So have a good weekend and come back Monday ready to think in some new ways.

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June 9, 2010 · 10:35 am

What’s Ya Culcha?

That’s a horrible title for SEO purposes, I know, since I’ve misspelled “Culture” which is today’s topic.  Not high-brow entertainment or the ones found in yogurt.  Nope.  Today we talk about the culture that surrounds us at work.  That term – corporate culture – and what it represents is not an object of focus often enough, in my opinion.  It’s often an after-thought;  something that evolves on its own because no one is really paying attention.  Sort of like mold.  And that’s a big mistake. Continue reading →

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